(Reuters) - Dutch bank Rabobank ended its multi-million euro backing of
professional cycling on Friday, the latest sponsor scared away by a doping
scandal that has engulfed seven-times Tour de France winner Lance
Armstrong.
The bank is the biggest backer of the high profile Dutch Rabobank team, with
total sponsorship worth 15 million euros ($20 million) a year in a cycling-mad
nation with as many bikes as people.
The decision shows the damage being done to cycling after the U.S.
Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) said Armstrong had taken part in and organized a
sophisticated doping scheme on his way to success.
"We are no longer convinced that the international professional world of
cycling can make this a clean and fair sport. We are not confident that this
will change for the better in the foreseeable future," Bert Bruggink, a Rabobank
board member, said in a statement.
"The USADA report was the final straw," he added later at a news conference
televised live in the Netherlands.
"The international sport of cycling is not only sick, the sickness goes up to
the highest levels," he said.
Sportswear company Nike and brewing group Anheuser-Busch dropped their
sponsorship of Armstrong this week, and the sport must show it can tackle doping
effectively to prevent more of its backers from quitting.
The International Cycling Union (UCI), the sport's governing body, has yet to
rule on the USADA's report into Armstrong and has been criticized for dragging
its feet.
"Despite inevitable and sometimes painful consequences, the UCI reaffirms its
commitment to the fight against doping and full transparency about potential
anti-doping rule violations," the Swiss-based UCI said on Friday.
Armstrong, a 41-year-old cancer survivor, has always denied taking banned
substances but has decided not to challenge the USADA charges.
The Rabobank decision was criticized by British cyclist David Millar, an
ex-doper turned anti-doping campaigner, who tweeted: "Dear Rabobank, you were
part of the problem. How dare you walk away from your young clean guys who are
part of the solution. Sickening."
Rabobank declined to comment on Millar's tweet. But its decision is a blow to
Dutch riders including Marianne Vos, an Olympic gold medalist, and her team's
preparations for the 2016 Games.
Bruggink said Rabobank would do "everything we can to support her 2016
Olympic ambitions" but did not elaborate.
COMMERCIAL DAMAGE
American rider Levi Leipheimer, who rode for Rabobank between 2002 and 2004,
was sacked this week by the Quick-Step Cycling Team after admitting to the USADA
investigation that he took banned substances.
Leipheimer, 38, was one of 11 former team mates to testify against
Armstrong.
Another sponsor, SKINS, which is a partner of the Rabobank team, said on
Thursday it would reconsider its association with the sport if the UCI failed to
act on doping.
SKINS Chief Executive Jaimie Fuller warned the commercial fall-out could be
worse than the damage suffered by a doping scandal centered on the Festina team
that hit the Tour de France in 1998.
Cycling has attracted a new generation of sponsors in recent years who stress
their commitment to clean competition.
Huib Kloosterhuis, the head of the Dutch Cycling Union, said it was "a black
day for us and cycling in the Netherlands" and it would be hard to replace
Rabobank in the current environment.
The sport increasingly appeals to affluent forty-somethings who want to stay
active for longer - earning it the nickname "the new golf" and boosting its
commercial appeal.
British team Sky, sponsored by pay-TV company BSkyB, said this week it would
sack team members unless they signed a document saying they had never doped. Sky
rider Bradley Wiggins this year became the first Briton to win the
Tour.
The Rabobank cycling team, which has taken part in every single Tour de
France since 1984, said it regretted but understood the bank's
decision.
"We've been cycling for 17 years now with the name Rabobank proudly on our
shirts, and it hurts that going forward we'll have to do without that name," it
said.
Its top riders are Dutchman Robert Gesink, this year's Tour of California
winner, and Spaniard Luis Leon Sanchez, winner of four Tour de France
stages.
(Additional reporting by Sara Webb in Amsterdam, Keith Weir in London and
Julien Pretot in Paris; Editing by Louise Ireland, Will Waterman and Giles
Elgood)